Protege
by KepnerAvery
Summary: Meredith is used to Cristina barging into her lab for a variety of reasons, but she has to admit that this is a new one. Slightly AU due to Cristina's presence, otherwise takes place a year and a half post 10x24. Meredith/Cristina friendship, Japril baby, slight Japril at the end.


**A/N: Hello! I've had this oneshot hanging out in my drive for at least a month now waiting for an ending, so I finally got around to finishing it. Follows canon, except for Cristina leaving. Let's just pretend for the sake of this fic that she never left, okay? Okay.**

"Mer, look at her hands."

Meredith was used to Cristina barging into her lab unannounced for a variety of different reasons, most involving her ever conflicted feelings about Owen, but she had to admit this was a new one.

Balanced on Cristina's hip was a small, dark haired toddler with one hand in her mouth and the other wrapped tightly around the inferior vena cava of a plastic heart model. By the look on her face she was just as bewildered as Meredith as to why Cristina seemed to be so excited about her hands.

"Well," Meredith said, "It's kind of hard when she's chewing on one and holding a heart in the other."

"What?" Cristina glanced at the little girl and rolled her eyes, pulling her hand out of her mouth and wiping it against her onesie before holding it out for Meredith to inspect, "Okay, now look."

"Uh, it's a hand."

"Yeah," Cristina rolled her eyes, "the hand of a future cardio god. Just look at those fingers! They're perfect!"

Meredith raised her eyebrows as Cristina tickled the little girl's hand with her finger, making her giggle and make a fist. Cristina beamed with pride.

"See that grip? Amazing."

"You do realize she's only a year old, right? I think it's a little early to start picking out her future surgical specialty."

"Hey, don't underestimate her. She's very advanced for her age."

Meredith shook her head, only able to laugh at Cristina's insistence. The toddler in her arms was completely oblivious to their conversation, distracted by the noise of the 3-D printer running in the back of the lab. While Cristina was admiring her grip she had begun to chew on the heart model, drooling all over the aorta.

"She's eating the heart." Meredith pointed out finally. Cristina finally took notice of her protege's new chew toy and frowned, pulling it out of her mouth.

"Cut it out Hannibal Lecter."

At once the toddler began to sob, trying (and failing) to take the heart back from Cristina to chew on.

"There is no crying in cardio," Cristina said, unamused. She set the heart model down on the lab bench next to Meredith and held the toddler out in front of her, giving her a very stern glare.

Meredith rolled her eyes, "Give her to me."

She took the little girl from Cristina, bouncing her on her knee and rubbing her back until her sobs turned to sniffles and she had stuffed her hand back in her mouth, gnawing on it like she had the heart model.

"So did you kidnap her from daycare to start her cardio training, or…?" Meredith asked as Cristina pulled up a chair.

"Karev handed her off to me. She's got a low grade fever from teething, so daycare wouldn't take her."

"Why did Alex have her?"

"Beats me."

Meredith looked down at the little girl in her lap, who was blinking up at her with her watery blue eyes,

"Are you teething little miss?" she asked in her "talking to children" voice, "Is that why you're a massive drool monster right now? Hmm?"

"She doesn't appreciate being talked to like an infant Mer," Cristina responded as the little girl pulled her fist out of her mouth and swung it around with a small shriek, "and she prefers to be called Tiny Cardio God."

To Meredith's surprise, the toddler twisted her body to look at Cristina, suddenly alert and intense.

"See?" Cristina said with a smirk, "Now look at this."

She picked up the heart model, shaking it to get the little girl's attention. She giggled, grabbing at it though it was out of her reach. Cristina pointed to the aorta.

"Tiny Cardio God, what's this?"

"Ta!" the toddler squealed with delight, clapping her tiny hands together.

"Thats right, it's the aorta!," Cristina pointed at the right atrium, "What's this?"

"Ay-um!"

"Right or Left?"

The little girl raised her right hand, giggling when Cristina praised her again. She turned to Meredith for approval, and her giggles turned to full on laughter at her surprised face.

"You realize that this just proves she's good at memorizing, right?" Meredith asked.

"No, it's just the heart, watch," Cristina pointed to her nose, "Tiny Cardio God what's this?"

The little girl stopped laughing, staring baffled at Cristina.

"What's this?" She asked again.

The toddler turned and pointed at Meredith's nose.

"Yes, she has one too. So do you, what's it called?"

"ah…"

"Nose," Cristina said finally, "this is a nose."

The little girl nodded seriously, touching her own nose.

"Oh don't act like you knew that," Cristina rolled her eyes, picking the heart model back up and pointing at the pulmonary artery, "Now come on, what's this?"

"Mama!"

"What?"

Cristina and Meredith turned just in time to see April yanking open the door to the lab, her panicked look turning to relief when she saw her daughter sitting on Meredith's lap.

"Hi baby girl!" She said sweetly, lifting her into her arms and hugging her to her chest before shooting Cristina a look that could kill.

"Next time you decide to abduct my child," April hissed, "you could at least page me or Jackson to let us know where you'll be."

"I didn't abduct her," Cristina replied casually, "Karev did. I just got stuck with her when he got pulled into surgery."

"Yeah, but you were supposed to bring her to Jackson when he finished his skin graft this morning."

"Well Alex never told me that."

April groaned in frustration, bouncing her daughter soothingly in her arms when she whimpered in surprise.

"As soon as he gets out of surgery I am going to kill him. I really am."

"April, calm down," Meredith jumped in, "Clara is fine. We had her the whole time. I know it's scary not knowing where your baby is, but you have her now and she's okay."

"Uh, she's better than okay. I am turning her into a Tiny Cardio God."

Clara perked up at the sound of her nickname, grinning and clapping her hands while April frowned at Cristina.

"You do realize she's only a year old, right?"

"That's what I said!"

"She's very advanced for her age!"

Before April could protest further they were all distracted by Jackson stumbling frantically into the lab, his face full of relief as he noticed Clara nestled safely in April's arms.

"Hey, you found her," he said, leaning against the doorframe as he tried to catch his breath.

"Yeah, Yang abducted her."

Cristina rolled her eyes, "I did not abduct her, Karev forgot to tell me you wanted her back."

"So you don't want kids of your own, but our kid-"

"Is destined to be a Cardio God," she stated matter of factly, "I don't want to keep her, I want to train her."

April and Meredith looked between Cristina and Jackson with amused expressions, waiting for him to share the same disbelief they had at first. Instead he frowned seriously, taking Clara from April's arms.

"No daughter of mine is going to be a cardiothoracic surgeon," he said, taking one of her hands in his fingers and waving it at Cristina, "Do you see these hands? They were made for Plastics."

"_Plastics? _Her talents would be wasted in plastics! She was born for Cardio!"

"Oh, so plastics is a waste of time? Plastics takes way more attention to detail than your precious cardio, so-"

"Excuse me?"

"Both of you stop!" April said finally, ignoring the disappointed look on Meredith's face as she called the argument to an end, "You are talking about a one year old child. She can't even cut her own waffles yet, she certainly isn't going to be cutting into a human being any time soon."

Jackson looked sheepish, but Cristina kept an even face as April continued her rant,

"Maybe she won't even be a surgeon when she grows up, did you ever think of that? Maybe she'll be a teacher, or a lawyer, or an astronaut. I don't want her to grow up thinking that she has to be a surgeon just because both of her parents are. Now she is not feeling well, so thank you for your bizarre interest in her future, but all that I care about right now is getting her home and getting her fever down. Jackson, let's go."

April turned quickly on her heel, taking a small bit of pride in the impressed looks on Meredith and Cristina's faces before walking out of the lab with Jackson close behind. Clara peered over his shoulder as he walked away, waving goodbye to Meredith and Cristina.

Once the sound of their footsteps had faded away, Meredith turned to Cristina with a look of amusement.

"So, what are you going to do without your protege?"

"She'll be back," Cristina answered seriously, "Some day when she recognizes her true destiny she'll come looking for me, and I will be waiting for her."

"Uh, sure."

"I just hope by then she's potty trained."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! And a special thanks to quisinart4 for the inspiration for the last line :)**


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